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Game creation for Android

General and Gameplay Programming Programming

Started by Shane C May 01, 2014 08:02 PM

3 comments, last by kburkhart84 9 years, 11 months ago

Shane C

1,369

Author

May 01, 2014 08:02 PM

I made a full game in a game creation software called Scirra Construct 2. The problem is, it doesn't work for me on the Amazon Fire TV, my target platform.

By the way, the Amazon Fire TV is a game console similar to Ouya, and a video player. In theory, it should be very similar to an Amazon Kindle and runs the same OS (a slightly modified version of Android), just with a gamepad hooked up. You would think so anyway.

So anyway, at the rate it took for the right people to fix problems with the Ouya for Scirra Construct 2, I would have to wait maybe 8 months.

I'm not against rebuilding my entire game in another engine. And normally I wouldn't even care if said engine costs me money. The problem is, many complete game creation softwares charge you the money upfront before you can export to Android-based systems. Which means I would be paying without knowing for sure it will work on the Fire TV.

I'm currently at a loss on what to do. One thing I want is great performance. And my game is just in 2D, so maybe a 2D framework would be better.

I have a Game Maker license, but I would have to pay $199 for the Android exporter. However, with Game Maker, I'm 80% sure the game will work on Fire TV. I don't care much for Game Maker anymore though. No offense but some things about it seem primitive (haven't been updated in years).

Then there is something called Stencyl. I'm a little more skeptical of it, as I always am with things I haven't really tried. An appropriate license to it will also cost me $199.

Or... I could just stick with Scirra Construct 2 and buy a tablet, which is something I think my game could work with. Then port my game to that. After all, I was able to get my game running on the Fire TV but Gamepad controls wouldn't work.

Anyway, I doubt I'm going to find what I'm looking for without throwing a lot of money (buying game creation softwares) or an exponential amount of time (coding it from scratch when I don't necessarily need that level of control), but you never know.

kop0113

2,466

May 01, 2014 10:19 PM

I had a quick look through the Construct 2 docs. There is a lot of mention of plugins (including Windows 8, keyboard, etc...). https://www.scirra.com/manual/145/windows-8. Am I correct in thinking it is possible to develop your own plugins to Construct 2?

If the game runs on the Fire TV, then you are 99% the way there. If you invest a little bit of time learning how to create a plugin to bind the underlying gamepad API to the rest of the platform, you should be able to avoid having to reimplement your game in an entirely different platform.

If it is anything like the Ouya, then it is as simple as adding an additional jar, tweaking the manifest and mashing in some extra lines of java into the activity class. Perhaps you can do this by modifying an existing Android plugin for Construct.

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Crichton333

352

May 01, 2014 11:54 PM

Why not just say what the problem is with your game maybe someone can help you.

"Smoke me a kipper i'll be back for breakfast." -- iOS: Science Fiction Quiz

shadowisadog

3,219

May 05, 2014 12:02 AM

Here is a link to the Amazon Fire Game Controller Input API: https://developer.amazon.com/appsandservices/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/amazon-fire-game-controller-input

I assume to get your Construct 2 HTML5 game to Android you are using Crosswalk: https://crosswalk-project.org/

If so then you could use this reference to create a Java extension for the above Amazon Fire Game Controller Input API: https://github.com/crosswalk-project/crosswalk-website/wiki/Writing-a-crosswalk-java-extension-on-android

kburkhart84

3,224

May 06, 2014 11:36 PM

Well, I don't know when the last time you used Gamemaker Studio, but it works great for me. It also has been upgraded over the time since version 1.0. The latest versions have access to shaders, including for the final draw, which allow you to change the way things are drawn. The final drawn surface can also be manipulated just like in any advanced 3d engine, allowing for post processing effects all shader based.

The biggest advantage of using Gamemaker over Construct 2 is that it exports to a native android build, instead of HTML5 wrapped up. It therefore can go much faster and has access to the same shader interface that you get on Windows. The main difference is that you normally write the shaders in OpenGLES's shader language. These get converted when used on windows. If you are going to export to windows, you can use D3D9 and D3D11 as well in certain exports, but then they aren't able to be exported to Android or iOS. Though Gamemaker has support for HTML5, you won't need it for Android or iOS.

There are also updates coming. In the Early Access version, they already have Liquid Fun(part of Box2d, a liquid simulation) integrated, though I haven't tested it as I'm using the more stable beta version instead of Early Access.

Game creation for Android

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Game creation for Android

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